Residential customers of Duke Energy in the Upstate could soon be seeing a substantial increase in their power bills.

Duke Energy filed a request with the Public Service Commission of South Carolina to increase residential customers’ rates by 12.1 percent, and commercial and industrial customers’ rates by 8.3 percent

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Duke says it needs the increase to cover the costs associated with modernizing power plants and generating cleaner electricity, managing coal ash responsibly and improving reliability and enhancing service.

The request includes nuclear project development costs.

Duke Energy Carolinas serves about 591,000 customers in the Upstate region of South Carolina, including Greenwood, Greenville, Spartanburg, Lancaster and York counties.

If the proposal is approved, a residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity monthly would pay about $129.43 per month, an increase of about $15.57.

WYFF News 4 Investigates dug deeper into the issue. We learned this increase applies to the base rate, which is about $4 lower than what the average customer pays now. For the next few months you’ll pay more to cover the costs of Duke’s fuel.

We found out that if the increase is approved, it would be the largest adjustment in more than eight years. There was a better than 15 percent increase that bumped bills up in 2010. The average bill was about $73 in 2006. The new rate would nearly double that mark.

We checked out the average bills for Duke Energy Progress on the eastern side of the state, along with SCE&G. Duke Energy Carolina’s average bill is currently lower than both. Even the full increase would keep it lower than SCE&G.

Duke Energy Progress had an 11 percent increase approved last year.

Duke Energy Carolinas has requested options to spread recovery of certain costs over multiple years to reduce the immediate impact on customer bills.